Despite the fact that most people are very concerned about the gap between the rich and the poor in their country, majorities across the globe are willing to accept some inequality to have a free market system. A global median of 66% say most people are better off under capitalism, even if some people are rich and some are poor.

Belief in the free market tends to be highest in developing countries (median of 71%). Nearly two-thirds or more in all nine of the developing economies surveyed agree that most people benefit from capitalism, including 80% of Bangladeshis, 75% of Ghanaians and 74% of Kenyans.

Publics in emerging markets also generally support the free market. More than half in 21 of the 25 countries surveyed agree that most people are better off in a free market system even if there is some inequality, including roughly three-quarters or more in Vietnam, China, Nigeria, Turkey, Malaysia and the Philippines. Support is much lower in Colombia, Jordan, Mexico and Argentina. Argentines are the least likely to see the benefits of capitalism among all 44 countries surveyed.

And this comes as no surprise to me. If you experience the ravages of the various incarnations of the “social justice” systems the left loves, you are far less inclined to want any more of that. That is, unless you are one of the people that thinks you will be amongst the “lucky few” that will reap all the rewards, or are part of the “unlucky many” that because you can’t do shit, like the idea that others will be hobbled and held back to the same as what you will accomplish (i.e. nothing). Others, like Argentina, which are in the death throes of the collectivist system strangling them, are far less likely to want out. That’s because until everything implodes and one is forced to walk away, letting go of these systems is very hard to do.

What is sad to see is the usual effect of cronyism and the support for capitalism:

Advanced economies are somewhat more divided over the free market. At least seven-in-ten in South Korea, Germany and the U.S. say most people are better off under capitalism, but fewer than half in Greece, Japan and Spain agree. In most advanced economies, people who say the gap between the rich and poor is a very big problem are much less supportive of the free market than those who worry less about inequality.

In general, there has been moderate change in support for the free market between 2007 and 2014 among the countries surveyed in both years. The Spanish (-22 percentage points) and Italians (-16) stand out for their declining belief in capitalism over the course of the global recession. At the other end of the spectrum, the Turks (+14) and Indonesians (+13) are more likely today to say the free market is better for everyone than they were seven years ago.

The western democracies have not had capitalism for decades. The crony systems where government is in bed with a few selected winners, using its power to make others losers, has been nothing but detrimental to economic growth, but the takers outnumbering the makers keep the system going. There was a clear indication of how this work from one of the findings in the survey:

In some countries, lower income and less educated individuals are less likely to express support for capitalism than higher income and more highly educated people.

What’s not said is that the “some countries” are likely all wealthy western democracies, where the takers like the system that fleeces the productive to buy their votes. Not to mention that these progressive systems in the west also see the largest economic gaps between the haves and have-nots. And that’s all by design. It’s not a coincidence or aberration that the age of Obama has seen the gap widen faster than ever. That’s by design of that system where a few elites pretend to do things for the masses.